Loweâ€™s moves closer to opening; no official date

January 15, 2013

By

Joseph B. Nadeau

A worker puts the finishing touches on the new sign at the entrance to Dowling Village at Park Square.

NORTH SMITHFIELD â€” The parking lot at the new Lowe's store at Dowling Village was filled with vehicles Tuesday, but don't expect to shop there just yet.
The vehicles in the Lowe's lot belong to the contractors and workers getting the store ready for an upcoming opening.
Town officials said the store is still undergoing finishing work and set-up for its operations and the company has yet to provide the town with an official opening date. Robert Ericson, town planner, said the building itself has been completed and the town has already issued a temporary occupancy permit allowing Lowe's to begin the store's stocking.
"We never got anything official but my guess would be Feb. 15 or later," Ericson said of the store's expected opening for business.
Store signs are already up on the building itself and workers could be seen putting the finishing touches on a new Dowling Village sign at the project's Park Square entrance topped by the Lowe's store name on Tuesday. The marquee could also soon hold signs for the Aldi supermarket still under construction near the Walmart side of Dowling Village as well as signs for Denny's restaurant and a Kohl's store, according to Ericson.
"My understanding is that Kohl's will be starting construction in the spring," Ericson said of that planned addition to Dowling Village. Construction recently began on the Denny's restaurant near the CVS Pharmacy at the Park Square entrance and the work on the Aldi store is much farther along, according to the planner.
The recent work shows that Dowling Village has finally begun to show the promise it offered as an area shopping destination when it was first proposed more than six years ago, according to Ericson.